Mar 31 | The Second Station: Judgment

We are human beings, and we come by imperfection honestly. We are born with it. A baby may not necessarily be born “stained”, but it is born into systems of oppression and isolation. It is now a separate person from its mother and can never go back. Many of us spend our entire lives searching for that lost feeling of wholeness.2013-02-27_20-34-17_702

Our failings are a part of our humanity. We are all betrayed. We also all betray each other. At some point we un-learn trust and replace it with suspicion and fear. We betray our friends, our family, and our planet. Just as we are betrayed and we betray, we are condemned and we also condemn. We choose not to listen to someone who questions us because they make us uncomfortable, or maybe we don’t want to change. Plenty of voices who call us to be more are silenced in our time today. Likewise, sometimes we are silenced, or those closest to us may deny us at a time of need. Structures and institutions can also be sources of judgement. Sometimes we might feel like an insect underfoot, and sometimes we stand by watching helplessly while the machinery grinds someone else underfoot. Our culture contributes to this helplessness. Reality TV daily holds up lives that we are expected to laugh at and judge. This is only an extension of the culture that once gathered to watch public executions. Of course, if we see someone else being humiliated, we can easily tell ourselves that they deserve it. Nothing makes us feel better about our own shortcomings than comparing ourselves to others. This is only a reaction to our own feelings of inadequacy and loneliness.

2013-02-27_20-34-08_436The Christian comfort in judgement is that Jesus fully understood our feelings because he experienced them. He was betrayed by Judas, condemned by his own religious leaders and the Roman State, denied by his best friend, and cruelly mocked by soldiers who put a fake crown and robe on him and spat in his face. Jesus accepted all of this as part of being human…and in a Christian worldview, that means that God accepted it and experienced it too. God, the source of all life, willingly gave up power in order to fully understand human frailty and brokenness.

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